The Preempted Bear

We have been impressed by the ingenuity of the many small towns that we have driven through for the last 3000 miles or so. They have been the proud possessors of the Worlds Largest Fly Fishing Pole, the Worlds Largest Hockey Stick, they are Canada’s Capitol of Hockey, the Geographical Center of B.C, home of World's Most Famous Burger’s (I ate one of those and it was really very good), The Greenhouse Capital of the Prairie, and with the exception of the hamburger, we have been pretty immune to the new generation of P.T. Barnum inspired civic slogan writers.

Then we came to White River, Ontario. The signs leading up to town read: “Where It All Began” with a picture of Winnie the Pooh (Walt Disney version). Nah, it couldn’t be, we said. Then as we approached town there were banners everywhere with the logo and signs with announcements about the annual Winnie the Pooh festival, then a large well landscaped park appeared with the entrance lined with the banners and a huge multi colored sculpture of Winnie the P. himself in a tree eating honey. We were hooked. Immediate right turn into the park, trailer and all. But being adults - most of the time, we were still skeptical about how the Englishman A. A. Milne and his creation were connected to White River, Ontario (population 1000).

There is a large plaque in front of the Pooh in the tree statue. This is the story: In 1914 a Lt. Harry Colebourn, a Canadian Army Veternarian bought a black bear cub in White River while on his way overseas. He named the bear Winnie after his hometown of Winnipeg. While in England and before deployment to France he gave Winnie to the London Zoo for safe keeping. On his return in 1919 he made Winnie a permanent gift to the Zoo. Winnie lived there for close to 20 years.

It was not clear from the description on the plaque if Milne actually visited Winnie at the zoo or not. So I went on line this evening and found a website (The Page at Pooh Corner) which has the whole naming story including a picture of Winnie the black bear cub being fed by Lt. Colebourn and a later photo of a chubby adult Winnie being fed by Christopher Robin. Definitely not the Disney version.

Kudos to White River, Ontario.

Bob

Chasing the Red

I have oohed and awed over the fall color ever since we crossed the Canadian Rockies. Yes, it was mostly the yellows and golds of birch and poplar, with a touch of russet in the sedges and prairie grasses. But they are beautiful in their own way. Bob kept saying, “Wait until you get to the east coast. Then you will really see color… all the brilliant reds.” Today as we made our descent south towards Sault Ste. Marie, the birches were replaced by sugar maples and the hills were set on fire with color. We were told that the color is past its peak here, and several days of wind have stripped a lot of leaves off the trees – but for someone growing up on the west coast, this is breathtaking. We will continue to chase the red leaves all the way to the Maritimes and New England.

Stone People
As we have driven through Ontario on Highway 17, we have admired the granite cuts on both sides of the road. Of course they provide the perfect canvas for extroverts to paint names, initials, and slogans – but other people have chosen to erect small cairns on top of the granite cuts. Some cairns are simply a few rocks stacked on top of each other, but others are quite elaborate. I photographed these “stone people” today. I like to think the cairns bless this highway and all who travel along its way.

... P. L. Morningstar